Are you on the precipice of launching into an even bigger, more powerful, more truthful phase of your life and/or business, and long for connection with other women who can encourage, inspire, support and celebrate you?

Does the thought of spending an afternoon in a room filled with astounding women who exude joy, vulnerability, generosity, courage, power and brilliance make you giddy with anticipation?

Jennifer Zwiebel has lined up an amazing panel of experts that I am proud to be a part of for her INTO THE LIGHT Live Event being held November 1st in NYC! This great panel will be sharing our insights into finding your way into the light and living a life that is true, meaningful, and full of joy!

Into the Light is designed to help you see where you’re still stuck, in spite of everything you’ve learned, and done, and invested in. It’s designed to help you feel safe and fine and relaxed enough to see the next steps coming through.

This Live Event happening on November 1, 2012 in New York includes:

Jennifer Zwiebel leading you through her most effective tools, which you’ll activate at the event, so that you can walk out with a clear strategy for the next forty days.

A 30-minute private session with Jennifer Zwiebel the week after the event, during which you will customize your strategy so that it truly supports you

The chance to be selected for live coaching with an incredible live panel of experts

The opportunity to learn from women of all backgrounds and paths, traveling different journeys, seeking to boost each other up and live lives as truth seekers and tellers

Experiential learning that will sink the messages into your mind, body and spirit

The aim of the INTO THE LIGHT Live Event is to create a sacred space in which you can look at what’s going on for you, give yourself permission to actually want what you want, and take one big step right into action. It’s also filled with laughter, joy, music, wisdom, extraordinary women and a little bit of magic.

P.S. **BONUS** When you join Into the Light, you will also receive the complete “Out from Under Virtual Event.” This week-long virtual event begins October 26th, 2012, and leads up to the live event. Register for INTO THE LIGHT here

Women are on the verge of something amazing. We all feel it. And I know want to be a part of it. You want to know how to embrace the best of who you are to create the life, business and world of your dreams. You know you want these things, but for many of you the challenge is finding the time to figure out how to get them!

Well, I am thrilled to announce that I am going to be a panelist at an event for entrepreneurs who are passionate about their businesses and their lives. I hope you’ll join me for this full day seminar to focus on your life, your business and the path you’ll walk to fulfillment!

I want to invite you to join me and four incredible speakers: Casey Eberhart, David Fagan, Maurice DiMino and Pina De Rosa, for a full, intensive day of training, exercises and inspiration that will propel you forward in life and in business.

This event is being held on October 24, 2012 at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. Your registration includes the 4 speakers, lunch, networking time and an amazing panel of experts.

I am thrilled to share this event with you and am so excited to be one of the panelists. I hope to have you there to support me!

I know that you are going to leave our day together full of new confidence and ideas of what is possible for your business and for your life. You will have clarity and focus on who you are, what you want and the steps to take after the event to reach your goals.

However, that’s one of the fears that came into my mind when my heart told me I needed to write this particular article today. In the past, that fear would have been enough to stop me from writing it, and doing an article that was going to be “safer,” or one I would presume/assume you’d like better. Now, it simply can’t stop me, whether I wish it would or not. So, buckle in…this is going to be a longer article than most, but I believe taking the time to read the whole thing will serve you.

It’s time for me – and I’d suggest for ALL of us – to really get naked (not literally, except with a willing partner, of course). This is not a retro throwback to free love I’m advocating. What I’m doing today is I’m getting emotionally, mentally, and Spiritually naked. If it ends up having you not want to read this eZine anymore, that’s a risk I’m willing to take, because I feel and believe it to be so important for all of us – in some way or another – to get naked in the way I’m about to.

First, though, a little background. When I was first coaching back in 1995, the prevailing wisdom was that you never told your clients anything personal about yourself, and you didn’t reveal any of your own neurosis (at least not blatantly), because you needed to be an expert and authority on whatever you were coaching about and give the impression that you had your s**t together. After all, who would want to get coached by someone who didn’t have aforementioned guano together? Yet, over time, I’ve come to realize two things: 1) most people are dramatically suffering because of thinking and believing that in their daily lives, no matter what they do for a living; and 2) doing that “looking good and together” thing is one of the things causing so much physical, emotional, Spiritual, and environmental damage.

So, if I’m really an authority or expert on how to live and have an authentic, rich, and Spiritually led/driven relationship and life…I better not have all my s**t together, because having that kind of life means having a relationship with your baggage and wounds that takes it all out of the closet and acknowledges that they’re a part of you worth loving, honoring, and appreciating (while not letting them run your life). They’re not parts of you to kill off. And…I better be willing to be totally real and authentic, or I’m a friggin’ hypocrite. So, it’s time to come clean.

If you’re a regular reader, then you’ve seen me write in the past about some of the intricacies of navigating the terrains of your ego-mind (what I call the grandiose part of our ego that’s committed to controlling our lives, your Spirit (your heart and emotional body, if you don’t like the word Spirit), and whatever you may hold as a Higher Power or Consciousness in your life. For the last several months (most of my life, actually, but I’ve only just recently really seen it clearly), I’ve been living a war. It’s a war that all of you are living, one way or another, whether you realize it or not. One of my mentors calls it “The War Within.” It’s the war between my ego-mind, and all its innumerable distortions, and my heart/Spirit that is the clearest, most pure part of me and everyone else (in my opinion). How do you tell the difference between the two? I’ll get really transparent here about how I do, by sharing what each of mine look like.

My heart and Spirit, from the time I was a little boy, has never been anything but joyous, deep, compassionate, extremely tolerant, very empathetic (and empathic), generous, wise, playful, trusting, deeply rooted in the certainty of just about anything being possible, and love personified. That heart, as a child, sat in the body of a boy born with a cleft palate, and hare lip, who – literally – from the first day of Nursery School (yes, I’m that old) until about mid-way through my sophomore year of high school, was in some way ridiculed, teased, rejected, humiliated, and excluded. That was just at school. That was where I got to get away from a broken home with a clinically depressed, alcoholic mother (if not bi-polar), a biological father who literally abandoned me at age five never to be seen again, and – for a few years – a step-father who was an abusive drunk that terrified me (now 40 years sober and one of the loves of my life). I know I’m far from being the only person with painful, traumatic stories…but, I want you to understand that your versions of this kind of hurt, confusion, betrayal, feeling invisible…you name it…they’ve all had some kind of effect on building the constructs of your ego-mind that war with your heart/Spirit on a daily basis. They’ve all been a part of building the debilitating beliefs that you plague and sabotage you right and left…the ego-mind’s favorite tools, you could say.

As all that horrible and painful stuff was happening to me, I grew to become someone who felt horrified to ever have to speak, period…not just in front of people, but I’d get self-conscious about speaking, at all, with anyone other than my family. I had few friends all the way through high school, I tended to be housebound a lot to take care of my Mom when she couldn’t hack life (which was often), and I had no Dad from 6 to 16 that could help me get what it was about to be a boy (and, someday, a man). My need to act like an adult by age 6, combined with all the loneliness and isolation that I thought at the time was my best protection against pain left me feeling ugly, unwanted, unappealing, and that I couldn’t count on anyone or anything other than myself…period. But, I didn’t want anyone seeing any of that.

I covered all that (the beliefs, the feelings) up by being a fabulously co-dependent and seemingly indispensable caretaker of countless people (mostly in my family, originally); cheerleader for everyone other than myself; workaholic; over-achieving, make-it-all-look-good upper management corporate slave; and over-eating, 275-pound walking dead person with the great family, income, and house with two cars and two dogs. Then – as now, lately – my ego-mind would keep feeding me a steady diet of shame, doubt, fear, constant reminders of “nobody can be trusted,” endless worry about how things were going to turn out (especially financially), and rarely letting love in…from myself and those who loved me that I couldn’t believe really could. When I was drinking that Kool-Aid, I never really felt like ME.

I started healing all that, shifted my career from corporate zombiehood to life coach, then relationship coach…and I found a Spiritual Path that really worked for me. But, here’s the thing I really couldn’t grasp. Unlike a lot of people that I feel go onto some kind of Spiritual Path to try to bypass their pain and wounds into some Nirvanic constant feel-good, my path has actually required me to get that being connected with my Spirit requires me to also not shirk, run from, or deny all my remaining layers of current and old pain, my frailties, my fears…in fact, damn it, it requires me to love all those parts and aspects, along with the true nature of my loving, compassionate heart that I’ve been blessed to help so many others do.

But now, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. There are so many planetary, economic, metaphysical, and socio-cultural shifts happening around the world – at a pace more rapid than I’ve ever seen in my 54 years – and people (including me) are fundamentally scared s**tless, and the fear’s only getting intensified by the very distractive way of coping with it that helps create it in the first place! You may not be admitting it, or maybe even aware of it. But, I’m seeing it all around me in the way that people are struggling to hang on to material things and lifestyles that they don’t even see are keeping them more and more disconnected from themselves, from love, and from their loved ones. Making money has become more important than love. We are deifying our ego-minds, and achievements…not that achievement’s bad…but being deified above heart and Spiritual Alignment…that’ll kill ya.

So, I wanted to come clean that I’m scared too. My ego-mind for the last couple of months (not-so-coincidentally, by the way, right as I made an even more serious commitment to living a life dedicated to bringing love to as many as I can reach) has had me waking up many mornings feeling low-to-enormous levels of anxiety and fear, pre-occupation with trying to control my future (particularly with my business) and being scared to death when it seems I can’t, fearing that people are finally going to realize I don’t know a damn thing (even in the face of years of successfully helping clients get themselves truly back to themselves), and being absolutely convinced that I’m only days away from living under an overpass somewhere, even when I’m nowhere near that.

You see, your ego-mind, and mine, tells bald-faced lies, all rooted in an inaccurate sense of self-insufficiency, that defy what’s actually true (or even could be), and continually strives to keep you feeling out of control and in a sense of constant threat of some kind. That way, you’ll work harder to try to control it all, you’ll DO more, and you’ll deify DO-ing and getting – over BE-ing and allowing your Spirit (and the Divine, if you believe in such a consciousness) to guide and get you through everything – good, bad, and ugly – with flying colors.

I KNOW I’m not alone in all this. How I’ve been “fighting the War” lately, to get back to returning to my connection to who I REALLY am and have always been, has been by: 1) letting go of my attachment to not feeling pain; 2) ceasing hiding this part of myself from those I love and trust (including all of you); 3) finding and constantly doing the Spiritual practices (or for the athiests and agnostics out there, practices that connect you with love) that I KNOW work, but my mind tells me I don’t need to do; 4) getting coached from those who’ve lived this War Within longer than I consciously have; 5) building a personal team of trusted loved ones around me that I can vent to who won’t tell me what I want to hear, but what I need to hear; and 6) remembering that my (and, I assert, everyone’s) life mission isn’t much about what I do for a living, but how I will live as an Emissary of Love, no matter WHAT I’m doing…and no matter WHAT.

Given all the cachet given to Valentine’s Day, and how many traditions there are around what it means, how it should be celebrated, etc., I find that it can actually reduce the true experience of love to commercially determined parameters that don’t even come close to actually capturing what the love we have really has to offer. As many common ways as there are to honor our Valentine/Partner, I am always searching for how to express and feel my love – be it for Sarah, my children, my friends – to new depths.

One way that you can always find to do that, in one form or another, is to remember and make alive that love in its purest form – no matter who or what it’s attached to – is, in my opinion, an expression of the energy of the Divine (whatever that means to you…God, Budhha, the Universe, or even Ralph). There is an Irish distinction about love that you can experiment with that may fill the bill of taking your love to an even deeper, more visceral experience…which is always the est medicine for what ails you in this roller coaster ride we call being human.

In 1997, former Catholic priest, John O’Donahue, wrote a bestselling book called Anam Cara: A Book Of Celtic Wisdom, with Anam Cara being a Celtic term for “Soul Friend.” In the book, O’Donahue writes:

“The Anam Cara was a person to whom you could reveal the hidden intimacies of your life. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. When you had an Anam Cara, your friendship cut across all convention and category. You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul.”

Another anonymous writer has written this about Anam Cara:

“Your anam cara always beholds your light and beauty, and accepts you for who you truly are. In Celtic spirituality, the anam cara friendship awakens the fullness and mystery of your life. You are joined in an ancient and eternal union with humanity that cuts across all barriers of time, convention, philosophy, and definition. When you are blessed with an anam cara, the Irish believe, you have arrived at that most sacred place: ~HOME!”

Now, if you read those two quotes, do you get a sense of what love is at a level that’s got more profundity and depth than a Hallmark card? Doesn’t it offer a different perspective on what any relationship can truly behold besides just “getting your needs met?”

I really believe that, if you were to focus much more on seeing and connecting with the anam cara’s in your life, and truly mined the depth that the very definition of anam cara illuminates, there would be a phenomenal difference in your life and on the planet. This isn’t to minimize the value of conflict and differing opinions, needs, and wants…but, most of the time, you’re working those conflicts and differences out from the Ego’s agenda.

What could shift, and/or be richer, if you were to sort things out through the energyof being one’s anam cara? What if your relationship was treated less as a thing that you “work on,” and more as a Soul vehicle that’s to be ongoingly nurtured and maintained for peak expressions, over and over again? Your ego’s never going to be satisfied…it always wants more and better. Your Spirit, however, has different criteria for satisfaction, and has much longer lasting feelings with infinite breadth to go with them. With an anam cara, that connection is always more than enough…yet, can always grow, without ever feeling insufficient. How many other things in life do you experience that way?

So, let’s see how you can play with this whole notion.

For me, I have several anam cara’s, but my life partner, Sarah, is the one I’d have to say is at the top of the list, which may or may not be true for you. But, if it is, let’s start there. She literally fulfills on every aspect of the quotes above. I don’t believe a true anam cara needs to fulfill every single facet of the attributes, but if someone mostly fills the bill, that’s likely to be close enough for government work.

So, I invite you to first make a list of each of the qualities/conditions that are laid out in the two quotes above about what an anam cara is and represents. Then, be sure you’re seeing how YOU may be your own anam cara (just as a fringe benefit). Then, make a list of all the people in your life who are that kind of soul friend for you, and jot down what that connection has brought you, and continues to, as an illumination of your own Soul’s flavor. Lastly, look at how you’d want to honor and acknowledge that anam cara. If you can’t think of anyone, then it’s indicative that you’ve got work to do to become your own soul friend. If your partner isn’t on the list, it will reveal the edge of growth and learning available to you to explore. But, if you’ve got anam cara’s that you intuitively feel would be hugely served to be honored as such, I have a ceremony that you can do that’s extremely moving and powerful. If you’d like to get a copy of that (it’s too lengthy to place here), then simply drop me a line asking for it here.

To wrap up, the anam cara’s in our lives transcend and go beyond our love partners. To me, it ideally begins with yourself…so, start there. But, if you’re in a relationship with a Partner, or a friend, that’s struggling…see if they may fit the description of what anam cara is all about, and it may just give you a bigger game to play to connect more deeply than the normal “Who’s right and who’s wrong” paradigm that plagues most relationships.

“Denial – a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too painful to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. The subject may deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether (simple denial), admit the fact but deny its seriousness (minimisation) or admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility (transference).”

I recently had a stunning, and seemingly unfortunate, awareness that I have been swimming pretty deeply in the river of denial for awhile. Like everyone else I know that has such revelations, I found myself wanting to find some spiritual meaning in it. Now, you may be asking yourself, “What could possibly be Spiritual about denial”? Of course, the problem with that question is that, if you knew the answer, you would no longer be in denial, right? This is no fun for the parts of our mind and ego that regularly like to purchase and redeem frequent flyer miles in the Denial Club. But, that shouldn’t stop you from looking.

One of the key things you and I have been in denial about at one time or another is how things are going in your relationship…particularly in that most important relationship you have…the one with yourself. One of the reasons your mind WANTS you to be in denial is so that you can maintain an illusion that can cripple your relationship and your growth…the illusion is that there’s some place you’re going to arrive at that, once you get there, ensures that you’ve: gotten everything healed, have everything figured out, and have a life ahead of you of unfettered joy and coasting. This can frequently show up in how you relate to yourself and your partner if you’re not staying “awake.”

In particular, if you’re struggling with some issue, some way of feeling about yourself and /or your life, odds are pretty high that it’s tough to get what’s really going on. Why? Your ego doesn’t want you facing the possibility that what you’re going through is a recurrence of some pattern, some belief…some habitual way of behaving…that you thought you’d handled over the course of the 120 years of therapy you feel like you’ve done and 4,000 self-help books you’ve devoured to try to heal yourself. You know you’re there when you see yourself doing the same damn thing you thought you were never going to do, a friend suggests that you’ve gone back to a familiar behavior they’ve watched you do for years, and your mind is saying, “But, I’ve done SO much work on that!”

Is this ringing a bell for you to any degree? Not sure?

Take a look inside and see if you can track how hard you work to keep yourself distracted from your feelings and/or those of your partner. Have you found yourself in an argument with someone you love, they get “heated,” and you get beyond frustrated, angry, and/or immobilized with their energy? Odds are that you’re bumping into that there “Issue” that you were convinced you’d handled for good. When a loved one unwittingly shows you that that is indeed a denial-laden assumption, you subconsciously (and even consciously, sometimes) get a feeling of resentment and shame overtaking you. If you don’t know how to hold it, or even understand what the hell’s going on, you’re more likely than not going to blast the other person to keep yourself away from facing what’s yours to face and heal (AGAIN, dammit!!)

If it’s all starting to ring a bell for you now, then you are receiving a blessing that’s far bigger than you might imagine. “Excuse ME,” you may be thinking…”Blessing my behind!” Well, the blessing is that, as initially painful as it can be to come out of denial, if you have the courage to go the distance with it, you have virtually unlimited potential for freedom and growth in every part of your life. When it comes to your relationship, if you can develop the habit of seeing EVERYTHING as it factually is, with an open heart, then anything’s possible. If you add to that the skill of taking 100% responsibility for everything that’s happening in your life (“Now, THAT one’s REALLY irritating,” your ego may be saying right about now), then you can bring so much more of yourself, your compassion, and your love to every relationship you have…and can begin healing the one with yourself more easily.

What are some of the symptoms of Denial-itis? Here are a few of my particular brands of denial fodder, in case they help you acknowledge and “catch” some of yours:

It’s all up to me.

I have to have the answers, the brilliance, and the clarity of all that needs to be done to reach my goals and vision.

I’m not being a good provider or partner if I don’t figure it all out for myself

I CANNOT, under any circumstance, feel out of control…so, I’ll figure it all out, figure out the solution, and then get it all fixed for all parties involved.

WHATEVER’S going on, I can fix it myself.

Whenever you find yourself having thoughts like that, and want to do a reality check to get yourself back on the path of truly following the flow your Spirit has in mind for you (and at the same time, reclaim your precious human fallibility with a modicum of grace), do something as simple as noticing how long it’s been since you told your partner you loved them, hugged your children (just because you really want to), or have been moved to tears by someone else’s good fortune and love. Do any of those that have been in the deep freeze, and you will find yourself no longer going down the river of De-nile without a paddle.

If you’re wanting to take your relationship to a level that’s far from common, use every time of feeling at odds with your partner to see what happens if you use it as an opportunity to discover what pocket of love is available to be re-claimed and re-felt by you accepting that you may NEVER have it all healed or ever “Be Done.” From there, you’re more likely to be able to hear yourself, and your partner (and kids, for that matter) differently. From there, you have the real potential to transcend the usual pettiness that lies at the heart of a lot of squabbles, and use the conflict to bring you closer to each other. Is it easy? Not often. Does that mean you shouldn’t go for it? Absolutely not…if what you are really committed to is loving connection and intimacy.

I would really love to hear what you think and feel about this topic. If you would be willing to share, and would want it to be anonymous, please email me at info@geofflaughton.com. If you’re willing to have your experiences be of more immediate use and support for others trying to figure all this stuff out too, I invite you to post a comment or a note, to my Living Your Spirit Now Facebook Fan Page

To me, one of the greatest goals that I hear a lot of people, from adolescence on, tout as a key objective in their lives is to find their “dream relationship,” or “dream partner.” When I ask them what such a thing, or person, would look like, there has often been a list given that is both Hollywood-ized, to a degree, but also tends to be all about what that other person, or the relationship, is going to provide them. Having that Mr. or Ms. McDreamy is going to make their life SO much better. In such a scenario, an inordinate amount of power gets given over to that other person and/or entity.

This is an almost certain recipe for failure; even if the relationship itself lasted, it would be choked off of it’s passion and juiciness potential by what would be an ever-growing haze of co-dependency, marked by an equally ever-growing resentment that always builds when someone on whom we depend to take care of our needs doesn’t get the job done.

A much healthier set-up is when we first develop the relationship with ourselves into which a person can step in a way where they are not being seen as a power source, but rather as a kind of amplifier…someone who amplifies that relationship we have with ourself, and adds new components. This synergy can create a separate, inter-dependent entity that – in my way of feeling anyway – would help weave a love partnership that reflects the truest Soul qualities of each partner and mirrors, in form, the fusion of Heaven & Earth…mind, body, and Spirit, that the picture here (painting at left copyrighted by DJ Sie) represents for me.

In noted Spiritual Teacher and Author, Mary Manin Morrissey’s book, “Building Your Field Of Dreams,” she offers five questions that we can use to “test” our dreams…to see, in my read of it, whether what we think is a dream we have for our life is, at the very least, in alignment with our Highest Good and the highest and best available learning our Spirit wants for us.

Again, though, the health and success of any relationship is inextricably woven with what the health or dis-ease is in our relationship with ourselves. So, I am sharing these questions with you and inviting you to go through each one of them in the context of your love for, and relationship with, yourself first. Then, if you are currently in a love relationship with a partner, see what answers emerge in regard to your partner and relationship.

Doing this will allow you to both more deeply appreciate yourself, your partner, and your relationship (or not), and serve as both a preventative and healing tool in those relationships. Why? Because it will reveal how much of a burdensome, unnecessary weight your love relationship is carrying…the burden of of projected needs and expectations that a healthy, thriving love for yourself would provide in a far more lasting and enduring way, no matter what’s happening in your relationship with your partner. When we can “catch” that, we can take such projections off our partner (or any external relationship) and re-true our relationship with ourselves…that then frees up our love relationship to be of a totally different (and healthier) purpose.

Here are the questions…take your time going through them, and answer them from your heart far more than from your mind. Any question that yields a “No” response is an indicator that you probably would be well-served to then ask yourself what you would need to do and/or adjust within you (not your partner) to be on track towards a “Yes” answer:

Does/will the relationship/dream enliven me?

Does/will the relationship/dream align with my core values?

Do/will I need help from a higher Source to make this dream/relationship realized?

Does/will this relationship/dream require me to grow into more of my True Self?

Does/will this relationship/dream ultimately bless others?

Be sure that, if you take on doing this “test,” that you pay attention to whatever feelings come up as you ask yourself each question. Notice how the feelings may differ when you’re applying it to your relationship with yourself versus applying it to a past or current love relationship that was extremely important to you. By the way, this is really applicable to every relationship…I think this is a great test to apply to how we hold and interact with our relationships with co-workers, our children, our family, etc.

I would really love to hear what comes up for you when you do this exercise, both out of my obvious attraction to the exercise, but also as part of research I’m doing for an upcoming book and class on relationship I’m in the midst of creating. If you would be willing to share what came up and what you learned with me, and would want it to be anonymous, please email me at laughtoncoach@gmail.com. If you’re willing to have your experiences be of more immediate use and support for others trying to figure all this relationship stuff out, I invite you to post a comment or a note, to my Living Your Spirit Now Facebook fan page (click here: Geoff’s Fan Page).

I hope you enjoy, and get illuminated (maybe even a bit uncomfortable) by, doing this exercise…and will seriously take on using whatever you learn to continually deepen, align, and expand your relationship to yourself – and your Beloved – towards the limitless places of connection and expansion that I feel are totally possible to live in.

I am an irrepressible optimist with a passion for the impossible. I am also an entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker and radio show host who has been lecturing and writing about mens work for approximately 15 years. I want to talk about why a new conversation with men is so important to humanity right now. My company is called Creation Publishing Group and the intention is to provide programs and products that educate, motivate and inspire men and women to reach their full potential. Your listeners can receive a 5.00 dollar discount off of my book by entering in the code GEOFF in their shopping cart at the end of their purchase.
Check out my new movie http://www.youtube.com/coachmichaeltaylor#p/a/u/0/vEBcgwhplH0
Web site : http://www.coachmichaeltaylor.com/

Today, I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 6 of the Virtual Blog Tour for the book, “Healing the Corporate World” by author Maria Gamb. This is a subject near and dear to me, as I had to leave the corporate world 14 years ago to avoid my Spirit getting irreparably squashed. So, I’m pleased to see Maria blazing some new pathways for the shifting of old, outdated corporate paradigms.

A former Fortune 500 executive, Maria spent more than 20 years trailblazing businesses valued at upwards of $100 million. Healing the Corporate World is a cutting-edge book examining the deep, and usually unspoken, ailment of the modern corporate world, offering solutions for healing at a personal, financial and even spiritual level. By showing the reader “the four cycles of transformational leadership,” Maria provides business leaders, from solo entrepreneurs to corporate senior executives, practical answers on how to transform their organizations from the inside out, and become “Change Agents”, consciously creating their own reality.

Yesterday, Maria visited Lynn Serafinn at http://bit.ly/cVXD0x . For today’s stop on the tour, I decided to ask Maria some questions about what she covers in the book.

* * * * *

Geoff: How do you define “change agent” and how does one operate differently in a corporate environment versus a personal/social environment?

Maria: An individual’s role as a leader within any business is very important because the change starts with you. You are the one who must change before anything or anyone around you will change. A change agent is someone willing to take personal responsibility for themselves and the world around them, because they know they have been a part of creating that world. More and more employees at every level are realizing if they want things to change, they must be the catalyst. In the personal and social arena this is also the same principle. There is no difference in the base concept of being the change they want to see, however, the applications are in different contexts. In the work arena, being a change agent means challenging the status quo because the old ways don’t work anymore. It means being a person who is adventurous and courageous to bring new ideas and concepts into the world, which includes cooperation and collaboration while diminishing competitiveness. In one’s personal life, the key to successful, happy relationships are the same: removing the competition which provokes insecurity in others, creating a structure where others are able to be open, free to express themselves and collaborate or share.

Both environments do require boundaries.

There are twelve distinctions to being a change agent that you can find in the book. This is called the Change Agent Manifesto. Any of the 12 can be easily converted and applied in one’s personal life to achieve change and success.

Geoff: Resignation is one of the biggest difficulties for many in the corporate world. How can one overcome organizational/employee resignation and still be able to make a positive difference AND be re-inspire?

Maria: I agree! Resignation IS a huge problem. People feel unable to make a different or why even try to. This is very indicative of the “winter” period within the cycle of transformation. This period is called “The Reveal”. This is where many people are today. In this period they’ve looked back at their results and the actions, decisions and thought processes that brought them to this point. Usually there’s a lot of Monday-morning quarter backing going on in terms of what should have been done instead. Looking back and reassessing is important but when you go into judgment of yourself and others it feeds into despair and ultimately hopelessness.

Here’s the way out: hope. Without hope, there is no end to the pain and suffering. In order to believe there is hope a sense of reinvention and opportunity that comes with it must be communicated. As a culture we think in a linear manner – which is that there is a beginning and end. That’s it. However, the way shifts are made is by looking at things from a circular perspective. Something begins; it goes through a series of phases, no unlike the seasons I’ve mentioned, where one phase leads to another to a desired result. But the cycle never stops. Just as we will always have spring before summer and autumn after spring – no matter how long of short those periods may be. In business that means understanding and accepting that this is part of evolution process. We’ve all being through challenges before and the only way OUT is to connect to that hope that it can be different. You’ve done it before and moved through it. In this regard, referencing past experience is important as a bench mark that it is possible.

Geoff: What is the Law of Reflection that you refer to in the book?

Maria: This law is positioned in the book to offer a new way to look at people and circumstances that are often times challenging, and let’s face it, out right frustrating. It provides insight into “why” your team may not be working. Or “what” it is that’s “missing” which any manager, leader or colleague may need to address. This teaching tool provides the reader with an easy way to do this rather than feeling like a victim, which is a tough place to come from.

The law of reflection is a teaching tool that I have always found fascinating. It is that which you see in others, sometimes it’s an annoyance or impatience, is actually a reflection of a same or similar issue that you need to resolve within yourself. That’s actually why you have a reaction to it! You may just have your own special way of delivering it but it’s the same core issue that may need to be addressed. Likewise, the law of reflections provides us an opportunity to celebrate what is inside of us that we see in others. When you admire someone who is kind and caring, you are actually viewing those attributes in yourself.

Geoff: Why is the subject of your book so critical now, after years of other attempts to reconcile corporate mentalities with spiritual/social concerns and values?

Maria: We’ve not gone through an economic upheaval such as in 2008 since the Great Depression. For many this is all very new as the depression generation participants are few and far between today. So in some ways this is very new for all of us yet not unfamiliar.

When chaos comes into any situation, it means that there IS an imbalance between the values of the people that are involved and the system that has been put in place. In scientific terms, this is called bi-furication. In this phase, we are asked to make a decision: breakdown or breakthrough. The chaos doesn’t stop until the decision is made. A breakdown is resistance to change, being slow, or stuck in outdated thought processes and institutions. However, a breakthrough means making Internal and self-created changes in the way people relate to one another and their environment. This includes rebuilding foundational structures and relationships.

That last part is critical to understand the link between businesses; it’s people and their spiritual nature because the book offers the reader the opportunity to re-look at their beliefs, behaviors and results again. But this time, measure them against what they value most. Is it the need to express their spiritual side, their higher self? Simply put that is to be loving, compassionate and accepting. Or are they willing to continue with the behaviors that contributed to the current state which are those of the ego which are fear, lack and insecurity? Because of the crisis we’ve experienced, there is a need for rebuilding our foundations again. These foundational areas are relationships to ourselves, others, and what we value or believe. If you’re spiritual, then “be” that person of love, compassion, and acceptance. We’re all being asked to walk the talk. The book gives insight into exactly what that means and how it looks in the real world of business.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Maria Gamb and that you’ll check out her new book, Healing the Corporate World, which is coming to Amazon on Tuesday, October 12, 2010.

You can receive a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts when you buy the book on the day of its launch, including one from me:

In addition, Maria is hosting an exciting FREE 4-day telesummit entitled “Transforming Business from the Inside Out” on October 4th – 7th with a distinguished panel of 9 of today’s most innovative authors and speakers on becoming the ‘Change Agent’ in your business, in your life and in the world!

If you’d like to attend, all you have to do is request a “launch reminder” about the book, and you’ll receive all the information to attend. If you cannot make the live event, you can download the audio at your convenience.

To find out how to buy Maria’s BOOK and receive these gifts, including the FREE pass to the 4-day online telesummit, go to http://www.healingthecorporateworld.com

AND you can read all about the TELESUMMIT and the guests at http://www.healingthecorporateworld.com/telesummit.html

Be sure to follow Maria tomorrow when the next stop on her Virtual Blog Tour is Caron Goode’s blog at http://coachingparents.wordpress.com/.

Today Rick will be talking about Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and other great teachers were all born with a brain built essentially like anyone else’s. Then they used their minds to change their brains in ways that changed history. And now, with the new breakthroughs in neuroscience, combined with insights from thousands of years of contemplative practice, you, too, can shape your own brain for greater happiness, love, and wisdom. If you can change your brain, you can change your life.

The mind-body-spirit book market is saturated with books these days. It’s undoubtedly one of the fastest growing branches of the publishing world. Most of us love to find a great book to inspire us, but how do you sift the wheat from the chaff with so many books from which to choose? Furthermore, how many of us buy books with the best of intentions for reading them, and then leave them on the shelf unopened for months or even years?

Well, THIS TUESDAY, April 20th, you have a chance to buy a real gem. That’s the day Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance comes to Amazon. Patrick, a former Buddhist monk, and a world-renowned coach, workshop leader and spiritual teacher, has written this book based upon the teaching of his workshop of the same name, which he has been delivering all over the planet for years. In other words, the system in the book has been tried and tested (and greatly loved) by hundreds and hundreds of people.

Ok, so that takes care of how we know whether or not this book is worth checking out, but what about the other problem– finding the time to read it and absorb it properly? In our hectic day-to-day living, it’s just so hard to manage to sit down in a quiet place and READ, what to speak of absorbing rich, new information.

Well, here’s where things get really fun. Patrick is offering an unprecedented 2-session “Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience” over the Internet, where he will PERSONALLY guide you through the “8 States of an Awakened Life”, which are the cornerstones of all his world-famous work. If you buy the book on the 20th, you’ll receive it in plenty of time to follow along during the webcast, and get the very most out of your “virtual experience”.

The Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience will be on May 5-6, via webcast, and will be hosted by my friend and colleague, Lynn Serafinn, from Spirit Authors. She tells me that there will also be some opportunity to ask Patrick your questions about his teachings. You can attend either via the web or call in over the telephone. You can ask questions via either method, as there will be a way to post your questions online during the broadcast.

And if you can’t make the live event, don’t worry. The audio will be available for download AND will be available only to those who register for the VIP pass. In addition to the Virtual Experience, there are over 30 of us who are giving away some FABULOUS free spiritual gifts to you when you buy Patrick’s book. I’m giving away a free copy of my Report, “Three Steps To Transcending The Grip of Survival Energy,” which outlines a formula for being able to regain a healthy balance in the places where your Survival Energy, and all the limitations that come with it, can take a back seat in your life, rather than being what steers your life.